


Challenge

by sanctuary_for_all



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, More plot than I'd intended, True Love, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-18
Updated: 2015-11-29
Packaged: 2018-05-02 05:54:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5236811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctuary_for_all/pseuds/sanctuary_for_all
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>"The story's on my side." Jake squared his shoulders. "The lover of the captured mortal has the right to challenge you to get them back."</em>
</p><p>The Faerie Queen has Cassie, and Jake is ready to do whatever he has to in order to save her. Even if that means admitting feelings he'd managed to keep hidden.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The Faerie Queen flickered where she stood, shifting in and out of focus and taking a slightly different form each time. All of them were caught in the same frozen, struggling position, too busy wrestling with their other selves to continue attacking the Librarian and Guardian hiding behind the bookshelf. They’d tried to come near her, but she still had a magical field that flung them back any time they tried to get anywhere near her.

“As much as I like the fact that she’s no longer trying to fry us or transform us into anything, this isn’t exactly going to help us lure her through the fairy ring Cassandra and Ezekiel are making.” Baird sighed, turning to look at Jake. “Why is this happening to her, and not to any of the other characters we’ve faced?”

“There’s been too many versions of the Faerie Queen,” Jake said grimly, eyeing the queen as he tried to find another angle of attack. The problem with faeries was that they were rarely defeated in fiction – they just gave up. “Almost the same character, but not quite. I think she tried to tap into them for more power, and now they’re fighting each other for control of the form.”

“Which means that if she manages to figure out how to fix the signal problem, we’re in real trouble.” She ducked back, picking up the piece of the iron plant stand she’d grabbed earlier.  “I can’t get close enough to her to stab her, but I ended up getting pretty good at throwing sp—“

Before she could finish, the Faerie Queen dissipated into a cloud of black smoke. Instead of disappearing, however, it arrowed straight through the doors with clear intention. As the doors burst open, Jake could see the smoke heading down the stairs.

Right towards where Cassie and Jones were.

Jake was on his feet only a heartbeat behind Baird, both of them racing down the stairs to the room where the other two Librarians were building their fairy ring (using books about mushrooms – Cassie’s idea).

Eve was the first through the door, which was why the bolt of magic hit her square in the chest instead of Jake. The light was blinding, just like all of the other Faerie Queen’s attacks had been, and Jake dove back into the hallway. By the time the light cleared, there was a very angry nightingale in Baird’s place. She shot forward, clearly in attack mode, only to be flung back by another burst of power. Jake caught Eve before she hit the opposite wall, setting the unconscious bird down a few feet away.

From inside the room, there was a dark, ugly laugh in what sounded like Cassie’s voice. “Silly little thing. If you won’t sing for me, I’ll find someone else who will.”

Jake felt ice in his chest, the burrowing fear deeper than anything he’d ever felt. He knew he should run, grab Baird and try to get back to the Library and hope like hell Jenkins had some idea of what to do next, but he couldn’t.

Because the Faerie Queen had Cassie.

As if called, she stepped into the hallway. Cassie seemed to glow with the same light as the Faerie Queen’s power, the cold, cruel expression on her face making it clear that the queen had taken the body over completely. “This physical form is just perfect for what I need. Remarkably attuned to magic – I feel right at home.” She stretched. “With this body anchoring me to your world, there’s no way Prospero can send me back now. There are advantages to not being as attached to a single corporeal form as he is.” She focused on Jake, smiling a shark’s smile. “Will you be my songbird, Jacob Stone? I’m bored with human bards, but you’d make such a lovely bird.”

She lifted a hand, clearly ready to blast him, and the words fell out of Jake’s mouth before he knew he was going to say them. “I challenge you for Cassie.” Once they were out, though, Jake knew it was the only play he had. He hadn't put a label on it, before, hadn't let himself think about it, but this was no time for pretending.

Her eyebrows lifted. "What did you say, mortal?"

Jake braced himself, even as his heart was hammering. "Tam Lin" was a well-enough known story that at least one of the queen's selves had probably come from there, which meant the narrative would be on his side. ”I challenge you for Cassie. If I can hold onto her through whatever you throw at me, you get out of her and go back into your books."

The queen’s laugh was mocking. "I'm in no mood to play knights and fools." She lifted her hand, clearly ready to throw a burst of magic at him, but the light flared only briefly before fading. She glared at her hand, furious, then flung a random burst of magic at the wall. It left a smoking hole, but when she tried to attack Jake again the magic died before it left her hand.

She made an enraged sound. "How are you doing this?"

"The story's on my side." Jake squared his shoulders. "The lover of the captured mortal has the right to challenge you to get them back."

The queen's eyes narrowed, suddenly speculative. "I could get you hundreds of willing females, all of them far more beautiful and experienced than this creature."

"It's not about sex." He took a step towards the queen, even as every self-preservation instinct he had screamed at him to run. "I love her." The truth of the words, finally said, settled into his bones. Steadying him. "Which means if I can hold onto her, I get her back."

"Fine," the queen snapped, clapping her hands together. "But you have to get to her first."

There was another flash of light, and the world blanked out.


	2. Chapter 2

The light was blinding enough that Jake closed his eyes against it. An instant later, he was under water.

He forced his eyes back open, the lower floor of the library replaced by endless gray water that seemed to have no bottom. It was just dumb luck his mouth was closed, but he'd had no warning to suck in a lungful of air – his chest was already burning from the lack of it. He didn't know where he was, whether the water was real or some kind of illusion designed to fool his brain, but it didn't matter.

What did matter was the other figure he could see at a distance, limbs loose and drifting in a way that suggested the person was already unconscious. He couldn't see that well, but he did recognize the drift of Cassie's hair floating in the water.

Resisting the desperate urge to inhale, he poured all of his energy into swimming over to Cassie's side. He told himself this had to be an illusion – she needed Cassie alive (which meant she wasn't drowning, she was _fine_ ) – which meant that the challenge had already started. Technically, the Faerie Queen was bending the rules by not telling him what the challenge actually was, but Tam Lin was the story they'd been following so far.

Which meant that he had to hold onto Cassie, no matter what happened.

His chest felt like it was going to explode, and his limbs felt heavier than they should. He was swimming at a snail's pace, Cassie drifting ever downward into the murky depths, but he forced himself to keep going. Just a little bit further....

Jake's vision was starting to go as his hand closed around Cassie's upper arm. He looked up, seeing only more of the endless gray wash of the water, then pulled Cassie close and wrapped one arm around her. Knowing it wouldn't do any good, he pushed them both up—

—and fell through the empty air. He sucked in a lungful, twisting his body quickly enough so he absorbed most of the impact with the ground instead of Cassie. His shoulder and back slammed against the sun-packed dirt, years of bar fights the only thing that helped Jake remember to roll and save his body the worst of the impact. Cassie felt painfully still in his arms, and no matter how likely it was that she was just an illusion the feeling was like a fist wrapped around his heart.

He shifted to his other shoulder, laying Cassie on her back while still keeping her in the circle of his arms. She wasn't breathing, lips turning faintly blue, and the thought struck Jake that losing her to death would be letting her go as well.

(Would the Faerie Queen kill Cassie – the real Cassie, _his_ Cassie – to prove a point? The universe was planning on it, eventually, and nothing he'd ever read suggested that the queen of the fairies was any kinder).

Jake shifted so that he was crouching down beside her, one hand on her shoulder while he started rescue breathing. He wouldn't be able to do that during chest compressions, but he'd have to figure out—

—fire. The moment their lips touched, she burst into flame. So did he.

The shock was enough that, for a second, he almost didn't notice the pain. Every self-preservation instinct in the human body made him rear back, reflexes taking over to get the person away from danger, and it was close enough that he very nearly let go for a moment. But then he saw Cassie's face, clear and unmarked even through the flames, and he knew that this was just the next part of the challenge.

So he held on, the flames catching his shirt on fire and licking up his arm. Though they were illusion they hurt in exactly the same way real fire did, his nerve endings screaming and dying as his skin and muscles burned. He almost became numb to it, the pain massive enough that it blocked out everything else—

—but the slide of scales against his skin. The fire was gone, Cassie was gone, and in her place was an enormous boa constrictor. This time, Jake didn't have to hold on – the snake was already moving to coil around him, muscles tightening as the pressure interrupted the blood flow in his body. He'd be too big for the snake to eat, but that wouldn't be enough to stop her – he presumed this was supposed to be Cassie in another shape – from killing him. The only way to save himself would be to try and fight the snake off, but that would be playing right into the queen's hands....

Wait. What if it really was Cassie? Even if this was all an illusion, there was a chance the queen was using a mental link to make it happen. If he could somehow reach the part of Cassie that the queen hadn't taken over.... "Cassie," he tried, voice strained. "Cassie, it's me, Jake. If you're in there anywhere, you have to fight—"

—the swipe of claws, as the snake turned into an enraged lioness.  Thankfully, they only gouged his arm – by sheer dumb luck she'd manifested in front of him, his arms wrapped around her from the back. She struggled to turn around, desperate to attack, and he tightened his arms around her even as she kept tearing ribbons in his arms. The pain was different than the fire, nerves fresh and ready to transmit every screaming inch to his brain, and when he hooked a leg around her middle to try and keep her from squirming away her back claws tore through denim and flesh nearly as deeply.

"Cassie!" he shouted, cheek braced against the lioness's shoulder. Desperation was a hard, cold knot in his gut – he had no trouble giving all he had, but what if it wasn't enough? What if he sacrificed himself and still didn't manage to save her? "Cassie, please! You've got to fight this! I need your help!"

The lioness went still, breathing hard. Jake was breathless for a second, utterly stunned, but he couldn't give up the fight now. "Cassie, it's me, Jake. The Faerie Queen has your body and she's planning on keeping it. I've challenged her, but you need to—"

—but it was her again, and the rest of the sentence died in his throat. It was her, but the challenge wasn't done, because they were spooning together in a hospital bed. The empty world around them transformed as well, the beep of machines and the footsteps of nurses in the hallway. The knowledge flooded his mind a heartbeat later, feeling just as real as the fire and the claws had.

Cassie was dying.


	3. Chapter 3

As the realization crashed through him, Jake's breath froze in his lungs. "Cassie?"

Her hand tightened on his arm just a little. "Jake." Her voice sounded exhausted, and when she shifted around to look at him she looked more drained than he'd ever seen her. "Sorry. Did I fall asleep on you again?"

He swallowed, a jagged pain in his chest that felt like his heart was physically breaking. He'd looked up all the possible symptoms of a brain tumor, late one night when he'd felt like jabbing at bruises. Now, though, he had a hundred different memories in his head of seeing her succumb to those symptoms, one by one. No matter how false they were, they were still a thousand times worse. "It's okay," he murmured, brushing a lock of hair back from her face. "You needed it."

Cassie shook her head, moving slowly. "Sleep doesn't help." Her brow was furrowed, like she was trying to think past a headache. "Besides, I want... I...." She stopped, as if the rest of the sentence escaped her. She hunted for the word, eyes filling as her expression grew more and more frustrated.

"Shhhh. Don't worry about it." His throat felt raw, the pain on her face tearing at him. "I know what you mean."

"No, you don't." She pushed at him, but she was so weak it was like someone had tried to hit him with a piece of paper. The fact that she was still crying was a thousand times worse. "How can you? I don't even know what I mean anymore!"

She buried her face against his chest, shoulders shaking, and Jake squeezed his eyes shut and wrapped his arms around her. There was a faint voice at the back of his head trying to scream at him that this wasn't real, that it was just another one of the Faerie Queen's illusions, but it faded out more and more as the pain swallowed everything else up.  Even if it wasn't real now, it could be. One day, it probably would be.

He stopped, remembering Cassie saying that she'd planned on ending things on her own terms. "You said you were going to choose a day," he whispered, hoping she knew what he meant. He wasn't sure he could make himself actually say the words.

She sniffed. "I wanted to spend as long as I could with everyone." She swallowed. "Especially you."

Jake felt his own eyes fill, guilt and love a weight in his chest. Part of the reason she was in this much pain right now was because he hadn't been strong enough to let her go. "I'm sorry."

She pushed at him again. "Don't be sorry." The ghost of her old stubbornness was in her voice. "It was my choice."

He smoothed a hand over her hair, feeling like smiling and crying in the same breath. "Can't argue with that."

"No, you can't." She brushed a kiss against his neck. "Some—"

The world went still, the clock on the wall freezing between ticks. "It hurts, doesn't it?" It was the Faerie Queen's voice, the one she'd had before taking over Cassie's body, and it sounded like it was coming from everywhere in the room. "I started with physical pain, blood and burning, but that's nothing compared to what's happening to you now." For a moment, she sounded absolutely gleeful. "And the best part is, I didn't even have to come up with it! Even if you never see me again, Cassandra's fate has already been decided."

Jake had gone on more than a few Library research sessions trying to find a magical cure for Cassie's tumor. He was careful to make sure most of the team didn't know what he was doing – there was no way to hide it from Jenkins – but so far he hadn't been able to find anything. Another failure on his part.

"That's always been the problem, hasn't it?" The queen's voice lowered, a mockery of seduction. "It was so much _easier_ not to trust her, because that way you didn't have to think about how much you liked a dying girl. Poor, lonely little boy, never had anyone of his very own. Never had anyone who saw him all the way through and loved him just as he was." She laughed, a cruel sound. "Then Cassandra comes along, makes you think such a thing is possible, and surprise! She's dying. The person you give your heart to will be the one to finally rip it out of your chest. Ah, the irony of it."

Jake's heart twisted, aching with a truth he'd never admitted to anyone. "That's not what irony is," he said instead, voice rough. "You'd think a literary character would be able to use the damn word properly."

"Such impudence," she warned. "And when I had intended to offer a solution to your little emotional crisis."

Jake felt his breath go. "You'd heal Cassie?" If she offered... he would still have to say no. Cassie would want him to say no, to do what was right instead of what his heart wanted. She'd learned that lesson the hard way, and he had no right to take that from her for the sake of his broken heart.

But it would be the hardest thing he'd ever done. If he got out of this, he'd have to apologize to Cassie for not being more understanding when she'd been tempted by the same thing.

The queen scoffed. "You mortals and your narrow minds. What kind of solution is that? She'll die anyway, whether it's the next few years or the next few decades, and your pain will be the same." Her voice lowered again. "Only I can save you from that, wipe away even the memory of her so she doesn't cause your heart even a moment of grief."

Jake wanted to laugh in her face, but the dumb-ass idea had been grown from a seed he'd been holding onto for too long. He'd held himself back, pretending he could somehow protect himself from the pain of losing her, but the last few minutes made it clear what a load of shit that was. Losing her would kill him, no matter what he told himself.

"Not a chance, lady," he told her, the truth of it settling into his bones. "Cassie's ours, pain and all."

Just like that, the pocket reality restarted. "—things are worth the price you pay," Cassie finished, sounding almost strong for a second.

Jake closed his eyes, tightening his arms around her. "That's exactly right," he murmured.

There was a tearing sound as the world vanished around them both.

**Author's Note:**

> Come check out my weekly posts and original short fiction on my [blog](http://jennifferwardell.blogspot.com) or say hi to me on [Tumblr](http://sanctuaryforalluniverses.tumblr.com)!


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